Horse trading is a card game for three to five players. The goal is to score as many points as possible with quartets of animal cards.
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Ground trading rules
The game contains the following cards:
- 40 animal cards (ten quartets of animals with different values)
- 55 money cards ranging from 0 to 500
Start of the game
At the start of the game, each player is dealt the following money cards:
- 2x0
- 4x10
- 1x50
The animal cards are shuffled and placed face down on the table
| Rooster | 10 |
| Goose | 40 |
| Cat | 90 |
| Dog | 160 |
| Sheep | 250 |
| Bok | 350 |
| Donkey | 500 |
| Pig | 650 |
| Cow | 800 |
| Horse | 1000 |
Gameplay
Each player takes turns acting as an auctioneer. This player has the choice of two actions that he can perform.
- Auctioning the top card of the deck
- Entering into a horse trade with an opponent
After one of these actions has been completed, it is the next player's turn. This now becomes the auctioneer.
At the beginning of the game there will generally be auctions, since there are still few cards in the game. During the course of the game you can alternate between auctioning and haggling. When the pile of animal cards is exhausted, only horse trading can take place.
Auction
The auctioneer turns over the top card.
All other players may now bid an amount for which they want to buy the relevant animal, they may also outbid each other. When no higher bid is made, the auctioneer closes the auction with the words: "sold once, sold again!".
The player who made the highest bid pays the amount to the auctioneer and receives the appropriate animal card, unless the auctioneer exercises his buying right.
The purchased animal card is placed face up in front of the player.
Sales rights of the auctioneer
When no higher bid is made on the animal card to be auctioned, the auctioneer has the right to sell this card to the highest bidder or to buy this card himself for the same amount. In this case, the auctioneer pays this amount to this highest bidder.
Donkey stretch
Among the animal cards is also a money donkey. When this card is turned over, all players receive the following amount:
- At the first donkey card 50
- At the second donkey card 100
- At the third donkey card 200
- At the fourth donkey card 500
After each player has received their money, the donkey is auctioned like any other animal.
Hoot trade
When two players own a card with the same animal, the player whose turn it is (the auctioneer) may enter into a horse trade with this other player.
The auctioneer indicates which player he wants to trade with and which animal it concerns. Then the auctioneer places one or more money cards face down on the table, without saying how much money it represents.
- The opposing player can choose to accept the offer and relinquish the card immediately or to make a counter-offer.
- In case of a counterbid, the player in question also places one or more money cards face down on the table.
- Both players take the bid card(s) from the opponent and add up the score of these card(s).
- Both players keep the money they received in this way.
- The player who bid the highest amount receives the animal card that was traded.
- If both players have bid exactly the same amount, this trade will be repeated one more time. If this happens again, the card automatically becomes the possession of the challenger.
If it happens that both the auctioneer and the opponent have two cards of the same animal type, then only the two cards can be traded at the same time. - The winner then immediately has a quartet.
Points
When all quartets are complete, the game is over. Each player's points are calculated by multiplying the values of the quartets (the cards indicate what a quartet of each animal is worth) by the number of quartets.
You can keep track of the score of your played games on speluitslagen.nl. You enter the number of points achieved by each player for each game and the winner is determined. Then you can see the statistics of your played games and share the results with others.